Development and validation of a neural network based model to observe the impact of geomagnetic storm on TEC at Lucknow during 2015-2016

The effects of strong geomagnetic storms over Total Electron Content (TEC) in Indian longitude sector have been reported in this paper. Geomagnetic storms during December 20-21, 2015; January 20-21, 2016; October 13-14, 2016 have been used to inspect the effects over TEC from Lucknow (26.91°N, 80.96°E, magnetic dip 41.90°). During December 20-21, 2015, an enhancement of TEC is observed over this station during and just after the storm period. The maximum enhancement observed during December 22, 2015 was 21.76 TEC Unit (TECU) during 11:02UT. TEC enhancement is also noticed before diurnal peak on December 21, 2015. The enhancement of TEC maximizes on December 22, 2015. Similar TEC enhancement during geomagnetic disturbed conditions are observed during January 20-21, 2016; October 13-14, 2016. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based TEC model is developed at Lucknow to predict Vertical TEC (VTEC) during geomagnetic quiet as well as disturbed conditions. The model is developed using International GNSS Service (IGS) TEC data from Lucknow. The model uses geomagnetic, solar indices as well as neutral wind inputs to generate VTEC by one minute resolution. The model is compared with standard ionospheric models such as International Reference Ionosphere (IRI) and Parameterized Ionospheric Model (PIM) to analyze its applicability in equatorial region.